


Your Mother's Face

by WinterSnufkin



Series: The Little Lady [1]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Crew Dynamics, Crossdressing, Gen, Jee is a good dude, Pre-Canon, Social Awkwardness, Zuko is an Awkward Turtleduck, Zuko wearing lady clothes: Hope This Doesn't Awaken Anything In Me
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-04
Updated: 2020-06-04
Packaged: 2021-03-03 20:48:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,849
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24541870
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WinterSnufkin/pseuds/WinterSnufkin
Summary: “I don’t want to play Pai Sho!” Zuko snaps. Uncle gasps and a few of the crew members snicker from the sidelines. “I’m going off by myself for three days, don’t try to find me!”He storms away, leaving singe marks on the docks with his boots.“But Nephew!” Uncle calls. “There’s nowhere to go! This village is very small and there’s nothing but empty land for miles around!”
Relationships: Iroh & Zuko (Avatar), Jee & Zuko (Avatar)
Series: The Little Lady [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1773727
Comments: 23
Kudos: 535





	Your Mother's Face

Zuko’s whole face scrunches up in anger. “What do you _mean_ we have to dock for three whole days?”

Lieutenant Jee stares back at him like he’s just now realized that he might have to spend the rest of his life dealing with Zuko. “The engine’s blown,” he says, letting a little smoke out through his nose for emphasis. “Our little lady’s not hitting the waves again until we can get her fixed up with some new parts.”

“My ship is not a _lady_!” Zuko shouts as the rest of the crew staggers wearily down onto the docks, sweating under the midday sun. Some of them just collapse onto the groaning wood, panting. The ship’s overheating engine had been baking all of them alive in their mad rush to shore, and they’d barely managed to make it before it blew for good. “It’s a strong sea vessel.”

“Agni’s breath.” Jee turns away from him with visible disgust written across his face. “I can’t deal with this right now.”

“Prince Zuko,” Uncle pants, last to descend from the Wani and clearly struggling. One of the men jumps up to help him. “We are only a year into our journey and our relentless pace has broken an engine that should have outlasted the decade. Perhaps this is a sign that you should _slow down_.”

“I’ll slow down when I’m dead,” Zuko sneers, and generously ignores the “if only” he hears from Jee’s direction.

“Well,” Uncle says, clearly pretending not to have heard it either. “We’re not going anywhere until the Wani is fixed, so perhaps you can take this time to relax in this nice Earth Colony village. I do not believe the news of your exile will have made it here at this stage. Oh! Perhaps we can find a tea shop and have a game of Pai Sho together.”

“I don’t want to play Pai Sho!” Zuko snaps. Uncle gasps and a few of the crew members snicker from the sidelines. “I’m going off by myself for three days, don’t try to find me!”

He storms away, leaving singe marks on the docks with his boots.

“But Nephew!” Uncle calls. “There’s nowhere to go! This village is very small and there’s nothing but empty land for miles around!”

\-----

“I’ll show _him_ \-- nowhere to go!” Zuko scowls, wandering the village. Unfortunately, Uncle is right and it takes him less than thirty minutes to cross the whole place. If he wants to avoid his entire crew for three days, he’ll have to come up with something new.

The Earth Colony villagers eye him curiously, but without suspicion. He and his crew had shed their uniforms on the ship a few hours into its overheating, which he supposes is why those who haven’t seen the Wani don’t immediately identify him as fire nation.

He turns a corner and stops abruptly at what he sees.

A woman has set up a stall near the road, and she seems to be marketing some kind of new makeup service. “My skills are such,” she calls, “that even the lowest of women can reach the highest beauty. Aye, they are such that even a _man_ could walk with a fairer shadow if he so desired.”

There are women flocked all around her stall, cooing at the little jars and sticks and brushes. The village is not a wealthy one, but the makeup they are sporting does indeed make it seem as though the people are teeming with beauty in spite of it all. And the most interesting thing is that it appears to be very subtle, unlike what Zuko has typically come to expect from Earth Kingdom women.

It would seem that he has found the solution to his problem.

“Even a man?” The women all gasp and take a step back as he approaches. “What would you do with a face like mine?”

He knows the damage is severe. The stall-owner’s eyes narrow and she beckons him closer, apparently unaffected by the sight of him.

“Hm.” She huffs out a breath and grabs him by the chin. He snarls and resists the urge to tear away. “This damage is more than cosmetic; it has retextured you.”

“So there _are_ limits to your skill,” is his disdainful response. She smirks conspiratorially.

“That wasn’t a concession. Girls, grab my textile box from the shop. We’ve got a lot of work to do.”

\-----

Zuko stares at himself. Madame Li Na and her entourage have left him alone for a moment to reconcile his appearance in the dusty, floor-length mirror inside the shop. 

He’s wearing green, for one, which honestly should not be the most jarring part of this whole experience. It’s some kind of swooping kimono with a large emerald band that holds it flat around his waist. The sleeves’ openings are bigger than his head, completely covering his hands when he lets his arms rest at his sides.

As for his head, well… he can’t blame her for opting to cover the scar rather than attempt to reshape it with makeup. She’s put him in a conical dǒulì hat with a green ribbon on the top, and hanging from exactly half of it is a silky piece of fabric that blocks view of the entire left side of his head from every angle.

“Exciting,” the Madame had said. “Mysterious.”

His hair has been released from his ponytail, as well, which alleviates a painful pressure from his scalp that he hadn’t even noticed before. She’d been frustrated with the lack of hair anywhere else on his head, but there had been enough in the ponytail that with some artful arranging, she was able to make it look as though he has a lot more hiding underneath his hat.

The right side of his face is unrecognizable. With only the slightest false shadows and lighting, the Madame had softened his jaw and done away with the circles under his eyes. She’d claimed that he already had such fair features that she hadn’t needed to go anywhere near his cheekbones, and had actually spent the remainder of her time glossing up his lips and chastising him for clear signs of biting them on the regular.

She’d even put the sheerest hint of color on his eyelids, a faint gold dust that’s caught his fancy more than he’d like to admit.

And now… he’d never realized _exactly_ how much he looks like his mother.

Obviously she never wore anything like this, but the simple reshaping of his jaw has given way to a blinding level of similarity, to the point where even just watching himself in the mirror is making his heart pound, his eyes water.

“It can be overwhelming,” reassures a voice from behind him, and he spins around in surprise, nearly tripping over his new shoes. Madame Li Na watches him wistfully from the doorway, leaning one shoulder against the frame. “Even for women, the first time seeing yourself transformed into another shape is… disorienting. Especially if you’re not doing it for the right reasons.”

“You’ve put me in fancier clothing than the rest of the town combined,” he rasps. “How much payment do you need?”

She eyes him for a second, then shakes her head. “None. No offense, but I doubt you’ve had much opportunity to feel beautiful with a scar like that, so think of it as a gift from me to you.”

“I hardly need _charity_.”

“No.” She laughs faintly, a twinkle in her eye. “No, I don’t think you do. But I will not accept payment on this day. Now, if you will leave, I have business to attend to.”

He scowls and stomps over to the exit, but she stops him with a hand on his arm.

“Just a tip.” She smiles. “If you want to fool anyone, you’ll have to put on a more delicate expression than that. And consider moving more gracefully.”

He yanks his arm from her grasp and slams the door on the way out.

\-----

He tries moving more... slowly. More like the Blue Spirit, as he’s been practicing in the dead of night. The kindest facial expression he can bring himself to settle on is one of neutrality, but that will have to do.

Everyone looks at him differently. All the men and women of the town can’t seem to stop staring, and though Zuko is used to such a thing, their regard is so different from the kind he garners when it’s just his scar pulling attention.

He finds an inn-tavern combination near the docks and settles at a table in the corner, across the room from the members of his crew that have made their way into the smoke-filled bar. He can tell that they like it here, as he watches them roll up their own cigars and start a loud conversation with seemingly no care to who hears them.

Lieutenant Jee, who is functionally Zuko’s Quartermaster on the ship, is the first to speak. “It would seem that Agni sails with us after all, lads. Just when life on the ship is nigh unbearable, the engine gives way and affords us this little vacation.”

“Three days is hardly a vacation,” grumbles the Boatswain.

The Navigator socks him in the shoulder. “That’s why he said _little_ , dumbass. Stop being contradictory!”

Jee coughs up smoke with a laugh, and Zuko realizes it’s the first time he’s seen the man smile. “Spirits, Hayato. You don’t need to go defending everything I say. You almost spoke up against the Captain not even three days ago, and I promise you don’t want that kind of heat.”

“Literally,” chimes in the Carpenter, who’d been silent until now, but apparently couldn’t pass up a play on words.

“Where is he, anyway?” Jee sighs. “I hope to Agni he’s not making trouble. We’re stuck in this damn town and can’t sail away like we usually do when he somehow manages to piss off the most important person around.”

“It’s certainly some kind of talent,” agrees the Navigator. “If he weren’t already exiled, he definitely would be by now.”

Jee laughs and Zuko grinds his teeth, temper flaring up. He’s just made the decision to go over there and give them a piece of his mind-- completely forgetting about his current state of dress-- when someone slides into the seat on the other side of his table, momentarily distracting him.

“Hey,” says the man, smiling. The corners of his eyes crinkle with the expression, and Zuko takes a moment to inspect him. He has shaggy black hair and a closely-trimmed beard that sports a few silver hairs. His dusty outfit lets on that he’s a cattle-driver.

Zuko frowns, but then remembers he’s pretending to be a nice lady and tries to muster a smile. “Hi. What are you doing?”

He winces. That sounded far too accusatory, but the man doesn’t seem to mind. In fact, he cocks his head charmingly and slides a tankard across the table.

“I was here alone and noticed you were, too. Figured I’d buy you a drink out of solidarity. Two loners at a bar, you know.”

Zuko sniffs at the drink suspiciously, and the man’s smile twists with some kind of bewilderment and delight. Zuko reluctantly takes a sip, and resists the urge to spit it out. Whatever they’ve been rolling with on the Wani has clearly been some higher-quality stuff.

Not that Zuko often indulges, reluctant to hamper his senses, but Uncle always offers him a mouthful of whatever he’s having at the time so Zuko won’t feel left out of the experience.

“Thanks,” is Zuko’s awkward reply. He glances back towards his crew members, but finds Jee looking over in his direction. He quickly jerks his head back, tilting his hat to hide his face, as they’re unfortunately sitting on his right side. He scrambles for a way to continue the conversation so he just seems like another person at the tavern. “You work with-- animals?”

The man chuckles and pats a hand across his duster and riding pants. “What gave it away? I’ve got a herd of buffalo-oxen penned up east of town right now. When summer hits, I drive ‘em around the mountains towards Omashu, and usually sell a decent amount of ‘em.”

“Cool,” Zuko replies, struggling to maintain interest. The man takes a long draught from his tankard demonstratively, so Zuko takes another sip from his own.

“My name’s Bo, by the way,” he offers, dragging his sleeve across his mouth. Zuko’s nose wrinkles. “What’s yours?”

“Uhhh-- Ira.” He flushes instantly and wishes the ground would swallow him whole. He’ll kill himself if Uncle ever finds out.

“A beautiful name,” says Bo. “How old are you?”

Zuko doesn’t suppose it would hurt to use his real age. “I just turned fourteen a month ago.”

Bo grins. “That’s a big one. Did your parents do anything fun for you?”

“My-- my Uncle arranged a party, but I didn’t go.”

“Oh? Why not?”

“It just seemed like--” Zuko frowns. He doesn’t really want to tell a stranger this. “--a lot of people.”

Bo reaches across the table and takes his hand gently. “That explains why you’re here all alone.”

“She’s not alone, actually.” Jee’s voice sounds out from the right and Zuko flinches in shock, yanking his hand out of Bo’s. “That’s my daughter.”

Something unkind flits across Bo’s face, and he leans back. “Funny, she didn’t mention you.”

“Did she have to?” Jee asks flatly. Zuko’s heart is racing; he honestly can’t tell if he’s been identified or not. He keeps his head tilted down to hide behind his hat. “Come back to our table, kiddo. The others have promised to keep their swearing in check so you can sit with us again.”

Zuko stands up on wobbly legs, forgetting about the strangeness of his new shoes. Jee takes his elbow and leads him away, and Zuko bites down the urge to snap that he can take care of himself.

“We’ll watch your back until he leaves,” Jee murmurs as they make their way across the room. “Then you can go find your real parents.”

Zuko feels a rush of triumph. He’s still incognito!

He softens his voice into something unrecognizable. “Actually, I’m supposed to buy a room for my family, but I was too nervous to go up to the innkeeper on my own. Can you help me?”

“Sure.” Jee changes course and moves towards the bar. “Let me guess, parents trying to teach you how to be an adult?”

Zuko snorts. “Yeah, in a way.”

“Mine did that, too. But there’s a pretty big difference between leaving your son alone in a bar and your daughter. Your parents are playing a dangerous game, especially given that this is the Earth Kingdom where women aren’t treated as respectfully. No offense.”

“You’re not from the Earth Kingdom?”

Jee looks down at himself, realizing that he doesn’t have his uniform on. “Oh, yeah. I’m from the Fire Nation, but don’t worry; our Captain tries to avoid hurting innocents whenever possible. If that doesn’t reassure you, I promise that we’ll all be out of here within three days. Sailor’s word.”

“Okay,” Zuko says, distracted by the fact that Jee just indirectly complimented him.

They arrive at the innkeeper’s bar. “This little lady wants to buy a room for her family, but I’ll cover the bill. How much space do you need, kiddo?” He turns back to Zuko.

 _Little Lady_. Zuko’s not sure how he feels about being called the same endearment that Jee had given a floating chunk of metal and burning coal.

“Just one big one. It’s only my parents and I.” He feels strange as he watches Jee hand over a silver piece on his behalf. Money had only been a vague concept back when he was living at the palace, but this recent year has shown him the sharp edges of a life-or-death budget.

Jee hands him the key. “Think you can continue on your own from here?”

Zuko takes it and glances back towards Bo, frowning.

“If you keep the door locked, you should be fine,” Jee reassures him. “I’ll tell the innkeeper to have the staff keep an eye out, if that helps.”

“Alright,” agrees Zuko awkwardly. “Th-thank you. I…”

Jee rolls his head across his shoulders and grins wearily. “Eh, it’s nothing. Tell your parents to be a little more careful.”

And with that, he walks away. Zuko ascends the stairs in a daze, the metal of the key heating quickly in his fist.

He’s spent the last year with his crew, and he’s just realized that he doesn’t know them at all.

\-----

Three days later, Prince Zuko returns to his ship in his regular clothes with a bag full of green cloth at his side. Trailing behind him is a painter, and Zuko has him paint _The Little Lady_ across the side of the ship in careful white lettering.

Jee gives him an odd look, and Zuko shouts at him to stop lazing around and get his damn ship moving.


End file.
